Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Pop it Ups Steampunk Birthday

Hi all! Today I"m sharing the card I made for this month's Designer Challenge from Karen Burniston. For January's challenge, Karen asked the team to use dies from at least three different categories. I hadn't had a chance to use her new Rectangle Pull card so that was my first choice for the card base. After that, the hardest part was choosing which other two dies to use!

I thought the Rectange Pull card would look great done up in a Steampunk style, so I grabbed the gears from the Clock and Gears set and went to work painting them with DecoArt metallic paints. On the edges I added chipboard panels that I painted to look like rust using Andy Skinner's technique. For my third die, I used one of that tag dies from Karen's new Tag Pivot card set to add a sentiment. The metal numbers were made with Tim Holtz's new Number Blocks stamps. I used StazOn ink and stamped onto foil-covered cardstock then trimmed and adhered to the card. Love that stamp set!

This shot shows the gears much better - and how cool is that new spinner? It's included in the Rectangle Pull set and can be used anywhere along the fold that you want it. I decided that a flurry of gears would be perfect for my steampunk card, so I added three. Two are turned up, and the bottom one is turned down. Love the effect! You just need to be careful about your gear placement so the card will close easily.

The front of the card ended up being the hardest part for some reason. I finally decided on cutting a frame using the card die combined with the included frame. I painted it gold, stamped the inner panel, then reinserted it into the opening. A few more gears plus Tim Holtz's steampunk gents and the front was done!

When I first thought of tripling the spinner mechanism, I wasn't sure it would work. Take a look at the video and see what you think. I love the effect! It makes me think of all the other cool ways this idea could be used.

All the supplies I used to create my card can be found at Elizabeth Craft Designs, Inspiration Emporium, and Amazon via the links below. All the paint I used is from DecoArt's Media paint line.

Holy cow Shelly, this is just incredible! I am such a scaredy cat when it comes to masculine cards, but you are just such an inspiration! I have bookmarked this page for reference later! The rustic, antique textures and colours are brilliant! Love every bit of this! hugs :)